A Dancer Brings His Rocky Mountain Laboratory to New York

For the past several summers, dance collaborations have blossomed on a stage nestled in the Rocky Mountains. The Vail International Dance Festival, led by Damian Woetzel, brings together dancers, choreographers and musicians for a most worthwhile purpose: artistic discovery.

“I love that idea of taking a dancer and saying, ‘Now we can take another step,’” Mr. Woetzel said.

At Vail Dance Festival: ReMix NYC, which opens at City Center on Thursday, Nov. 3, Mr. Woetzel’s eclectic vision will be on display with new casts of familiar ballets — Herman Cornejo, for one, will dance in Balanchine’s “Apollo,” with the birth scene intact. There will also be a dance that was seemingly lost: Carla Körbes will perform Balanchine’s “Élégie,” created for Suzanne Farrell in 1982 but not seen since.

Mr. Woetzel’s history is in ballet — he was a longtime principal at New York City Ballet — but the festival goes beyond it, honoring a range of music and dance, with tap (Michelle Dorrance), jookin’ (Lil Buck), tango (Gabriel Missé and Carla Espinoza) and modern (Fang-Yi Sheu).

Mr. Woetzel, in his 10th year as festival director, discussed his eclectic programming, his love of music and how his own dancing career informs his choices. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Why has it taken so long for you to present the festival in New York?

I’ve always felt a little reticent simply because what goes on in Vail — it’s very much a lab atmosphere. But then it started to feel that there were a number of things that haven’t been seen in New York.

What we do in Vail is based on the specificity of where we are, but at City Center I thought, O.K., let’s do “Apollo” with the birth like it was done in the 1950s, specific to City Center [where City Ballet performed before the opening of Lincoln Center]. That’s City Ballet coming into its own. It’s such a dynamic moment in the history of City Ballet but also of 20th-century art.

Why are you attracted to that version?

Partly it’s that idea of placing it in a space and time, but it’s also to expand certain aspects of dancers’ lives. Robbie Fairchild has danced “Apollo” many times, but he’s never danced the birth.

I think that’s primary in the way I approach directing this festival. I remember my own gigs. Some were about showing up with your costume and doing your thing, and with others you had an opportunity to extend yourself in some way. A new partner, a new place — something that made it more than the rest. I always wanted that for the dancers who came.

How do you think of casting?

A guiding principle is the idea of people who ordinarily don’t get to work together. It’s definitely a shuffling of the deck.

You incorporate a lot of styles, so that it’s really dance that you’re celebrating. How do you see that aspect of programming?

It’s definitely just dance, but it’s also music. A big example is the “Jookin’ Jam” with Buck and different musicians. It’s a little bit risky. Something that takes their own work a little bit further. The music really comes through for me as being primary. It’s my heritage to some extent at City Ballet.

The stage in Colorado is outside and gorgeous. How do you approach that as well as a more traditional theater?

Working in that atmosphere, you’re conscious of light. Half of the program is in the light, or the sun is setting, and you’re trying to think about how that’s going to work and what would be better served at one side of the evening or the other. You’re also constantly surprised. Sometimes you think, we need lighting for this, and then it ends up in the first half of the program, and you’re like, that’s crazy!

We’re going to be in an indoor theater, but not just any theater. It’s City Center, where history was created. I have worked on some scenic design elements, but most of all I decided it was the dancers and the musicians that were primary. That spirit was what I was hoping for.

What is the spirit of the festival?

Adventurous is certainly one of the words that comes to mind. Just that idea that people are risking things, taking chances, trying new roles without a net. In Vail, people come together in a teamlike atmosphere. It’s very Olympics in a funny way. It’s a village of people working together.

What made you think of casting Carla Körbes in Martha Graham’s “Lamentation”?

Oh, just dreaming. I also have her doing the “Élégie” solo by Mr. Balanchine. To have her also do “Lamentation” — the idea of interpretation through the same magnificent dancer really appealed to me.

How did she end up doing “Élégie”?

I’m always looking back in programs and books, and “Élégie” was one of those things: What was that? There’s a ballet, and it doesn’t seem to have lived, and it was right at the end of Mr. Balanchine’s life. How is that possible? It turned out there was a film, and I knew immediately it was for Carla. It hasn’t been seen in New York since Suzanne Farrell did it when Mr. Balanchine was still alive.

How did you come up with the format of molding partnerships and giving opportunities to dancers and choreographers? Is this what you would have wanted as a dancer?

Exactly. I wanted to create an arc of opportunity that could really address next steps for people. Whether it’s a dancer, a choreographer, a musician, a composer, a visual artist, a photographer, there are lots of ways that there can be more for everybody. I’m so proud of Tiler [Peck, a principal at City Ballet]. She was so young when I was dancing with her before I retired, and now she’s grown into this ballerina that has an enormous repertory and an enormous career and still shows up, comes to Vail. Takes her leg warmers off and goes, “O.K., here we go.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page AR12 of the New York edition with the headline: A Vail Laboratory Is All Set to Bubble. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe